


By The Fire

by OpalEmpress



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Darth Baras - Freeform, Dromund Kaas, Fireside Chats, Gen, Sith Training, Sith Warrior Storyline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:15:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22313113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpalEmpress/pseuds/OpalEmpress
Summary: Vette and Persefeni (Sith Warrior) have a chat in the jungles of Dromund Kaas.
Kudos: 5





	By The Fire

Vette draped her lekku over her shoulders as she bent to pick up another piece of wood fallen from one of the many curled trees that covered Dromund Kaas. She hated sweating so much, but this planet was the worst kind of humid, and she was not used to it. She was used to the smog and industrial smoke of cities, of the heat from pipes in ships and surrounded by people, but this was disgusting.

She glanced up at the tree growing off the rocky outcropping they had chosen as a camping site, where the blonde Sith stood on one of the higher branches, looking out over the tree line. Vette understood now why she had opted for leggings and a bandeau as opposed to the heavier training uniform that she had worn on Korriban—she had to be more comfortable in this weather. Vette had initially thought it was odd, that she might opt for more protection, but after seeing her fight, it was pretty obvious that she didn’t need masses of durasteel to keep herself safe.  
“Hey!” she called up the tree, “We can start that fire now!”

The Sith—Persefeni, she had said—looked down toward her, then dropped back to the ground, nearly bouncing between branches. “Thank you, Vette.”

“No problem. Uh, I mean, no problem, my lord.”

Persefeni knelt next to the campfire to light it with next to no acknowledgement at her words, “We’re about a two-hour journey from the Revanite camp now—we’ll approach them in the morning, before we head into Grathan’s complex.”

“Any chance we don’t have to head into the crazy Sith Lord’s house through the front door?” Vette responded, half-joking.

A flicker of a smile flashed across Persefeni’s face, “You may not have noticed, Vette, but I’m not exactly a stealthy fighter.”

“You don’t say. Maybe you can do that thing where you scream at someone again to make sure no one makes that mistake.”

A small chuckle escaped the Sith, and Vette felt the shock she had felt the first time she had heard her laugh again. Mostly, because it was just a laugh—not a laugh of derision or evil, but the same laugh that one might hear over drinks or a dinner. 

She shook her head as she unpacked two sets of rations from her pack, and the motion caused a few beads of sweat to trickle into the wounds on her neck, and she hissed at the pain, rubbing a hand over her spine. 

“Are you alright?”

The Sith was watching her when she turned, hand still covering the back of her neck. “I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.”

Persefeni cocked an eyebrow at her as she loosened her ponytail for the night, “Those shock collars are nasty business. It will take some time for your body to heal from them.” She dug into her own pack, and then tossed Vette something that she fumbled catching. 

A medpack—one of the high-tech, noble quality ones. No cutting the adrenals and kolto inside with chems or gels, no chance it was tampered with. And not cheap to come by. Vette looked at it, trying to keep the mild shock she felt off of her face. How many times in the past would she have killed to get her hands on this, to help Taunt or Risha? And now here this Sith was, tossing it to her like it was a pebble.

“That will help,” said the Sith, unwrapping one of the ration bars Vette had retrieved and taking a bite. “I used them quite a lot on electricity burns whilst growing up. It’ll still take a day or so, but you’ll be fine, and you won’t get an infection.”

Vette looked up at her, “How do you—you know what, never mind. Thanks. Really.”

The kolto soothed her neck and sank into her skin, nursing the open and scabbing wounds alike, and she ate quietly, stealing glances across to where the Sith apprentice lay, her head propped up against a fallen tree, reading something on her datapad that made her eyebrows dip together ever so slightly. She seemed too calm to be a Sith, but Vette flashed back to the blur of red that had killed a dozen or so acolytes on Korriban, to the screams that had shocked monsters in the jungle, the blows that had hit the chest of rebelling slaves surrounding the colossus they had visited a week prior. Vette opened her mouth, and then closed it again, defaulting to chewing on the too-soft noodles that she had grabbed for her own meal. She hated silence, but she had no idea what to ask. 

“The noodles don’t earn that angry a face, Vette. You’re going to give me a headache if you keep it up.”

Vette jumped. Persefeni’s blue eyes glowed in the firelight, a small smile curving up the left side of her mouth. 

“If you have questions, just ask.”

“It’s nothing, just…” She toyed with the lid of her meal, eventually asking, “I guess I should ask… why you took the collar off? Not that I’m not grateful, trust me, I am. But it doesn’t seem… all that Sithy. Not that you’re not! I feel like I’m saying this all wrong.”

Persefeni set the datapad aside. “I don’t like slavery. Is it really so unusual to find someone against it?”

“In the Empire? You’re joking, right? And you’re from a Sith family, too. Didn’t you have slaves growing up?”

“No, we didn’t. Servants, yes, and there were plenty of former slaves around. But no slaves.”

“I guess I just always heard—”

Persefeni sighed, “What you heard is the truth— the fact of the rebellion in the jungle makes that obvious. My family and a few others like it are… unique in their circumstance.” Another smile danced across her lips. “It’s not enough to change the whole of the Empire. Not yet, anyway.”

Vette hugged her knees to her chest, “Do you mind if I ask why?”

Persefeni looked at her, gaze sharp and judgmental, and Vette felt her skin crawl under the weight of her gaze, but then the apprentice sighed, and said “I suppose you can.”

Another sigh, as Persefeni prodded the flames. “My mother—before she was Sith—was a slave. She’s risen far, but it’s obvious it still… affects her. Her outlook on the Empire, her priorities as a Sith, as a—” she stopped in the middle of her sentence, then continued, “Well, anyway. She never had slaves, punished those loyal to her who did, until they stopped. It made her some enemies, and few friends—useful ones, anyway. But she’s never wavered from it.”

“Your mother sounds nice.”

Persefeni’s laugh was loud and harsh against the ears, and Vette winced at the bitterness. “No, Vette, no, my mother is not nice. She’s only principled.” She paused, anger on her face for a moment, before it faded, and she continued, “But no matter… in this case, I agree with her. Slavery is the Empire’s worst failing. And one I want to correct.”

Vette frowned, “Do you think… does Baras know your mother? Why did he “give” me to you?”

Persefeni rose to her feet and started to pace as another lightning storm crackled across the clouds, “At the time, I thought it was just to irritate me—or that he was ignorant of who I was, but now—no, he is a master of information, and my parentage isn’t even a secret. It’s likely it was a test of some sort—maybe to see if I am like my mother, or to see if I will purposefully act against her history, or something else entirely. I don’t think Baras does or says anything without ulterior motive and meaning.”

“If it was a test, did you pass or fail?”

Persefeni shook her head, hair flowing around her shoulders as she did. “I wish I knew.” She was quiet for another moment, eyes not quite focused on anything, before she looked back at where Vette sat, “I don’t regret it, though. No matter what Baras gleaned from it.”

Vette smiled, “I can’t say that’s not a relief.”

Persefeni returned to where her pack lay and picked up her datapad again as she resumed her reclined position, “Don’t mention it.”

Vette yawned, and stretched out on the jungle floor. “You know, that kolto might mean I sleep well for the first time in… stars, I’m not sure how long. No cage, no itchy starship bedding, no neckpain…”

“Enjoy it, then. I’ll take the first watch.”

Lightning crackled again, but for the first time since they had landed on this planet, Vette didn’t find it to be quite so frightening, and allowed it, the crackle of the fire, and the soft hum of Persefeni’s datapad to lull her to sleep.


End file.
